The Alchemist's Watch
by egefried
Summary: Ed performs his last transmutation successfully as he appears before Truth but Truth makes a deal, go to the other side and fix the imbalance. Before Ed can reject it he is sent away. There he realises that this is going to be his most difficult journey yet.
1. Wait!

**Hey, I edited the first chapter which has, hopefully, improved thanks to the hours I spent on it. The lovely review which let me down lightly was by DarkBlight so thank you and I hope that this is what you meant. Not much has changed so anyone reading for the first time won't miss out on anything but those who haven't read the new version should read it because of small change that I have made.**

 **Anyway, I don't own Akame ga kill or FMA otherwise I wouldn't be writing fan fiction for it.**

 **ENJOY~**

* * *

"This is the last transmutation that the Fullmetal Alchemist will ever do." Ed said clapping his hands together and watching as electricity flew about for the last time. He smiled and slammed his hands on to the transmutation circle below him. Blue electricity flashed all over the circle before he was brought in front of truth.

"We both know you're here for your brother, Mr. Alchemist, but what will you sacrifice this time? Your arm? Your leg? Your life?" Truth grinned as he listed.

Ed smiled back at him and pointed at the structure that stood behind him. "There's something huge right here that I can sacrifice. My Gate."

Truth laughed at him then asked, "Are you sure? If you lose your Gate of Truth you'll never be able to use alchemy again."

"Yeah… all of alchemy is on the other side of this gate. But thanks to it I was manipulated. I thought that just because I had seen truth that I could do anything with alchemy. But I was wrong, I was just being arrogant." Ed said, becoming determined to sacrifice it.

"You will become a normal human who can't do anything…" Truth said as he got an idea. It was fun watching the little alchemist squirm and try to go against the natural order of life.

"I was always a human who couldn't do anything. Not even save a girl who got turned into a chimera." Ed said with a far away look in his eyes as he stared at the gate. Truth smiled at Ed.

"So you're sure you don't mind getting rid of it?" Truth asked one very last time. After a second passed Ed turned back from the gate to stare at Truth.

"That's fine! I still have my friends!" Ed said with finality.

Truth grinned wider, "Oh, Mr. Alchemist, did you think that this was some 'friendship is magic' story. Well think again!" Truth said. "You can't sacrifice your Gate of Truth and since you obviously will not make up your mind about what you will sacrifice instead, I'll make a deal with you!" Ed glared at Truth, as he waited for the deal. He didn't think that Truth would let him get off easily. "You will go to the other side of the Gate and fix the imbalance there. Once you do that I will let you go with your brother back to this side. Do we have a deal, Mr. Alchemist?"

"This seems too easy what's the catch?" Ed said. To a lot of people it would seem reasonable but to him it just seemed like there wasn't enough equivalent exchange in what he had to do.

Truth laughed at how quickly the boy caught on, "You catch on quickly. Since you did I'll give you something in return."

Ed didn't realise what was happening until his right side started to feel lighter and when he looked down he saw that his hand was disappearing. His eyes widened as he tried to stop it by holding and clenching his arm as tightly as he could. It didn't work and he watched as his arm disappeared. He closed his eyes in sadness as the last thing that Al had given him was taken away. He felt his right side becoming heavy again but this time he didn't look.

"No one said that you couldn't look at your new arm, Mr. Alchemist. You might find it a little nostalgic." Truth said as Ed looked at his new arm. It was his old metal one but it looked brand new. He also had a bag full of spare automail parts next to him. Ed stared at Truth with a bewildered look. _Why is Truth being so horrible but at the same time nice to me?_ Ed thought but accepted the bag knowing that it was probably because of how difficult it was going to be. _Two arms for the price of one, huh,_ Ed thought with a small smile at his own joke. He picked up the bag and looked at Truth for the last time before he felt small hands grabbing at his body. He didn't resist as they pulled him up and towards the gate. The doors closed once again and Truth was left alone to his thoughts.

"Don't forget to be entertaining, Mr. Alchemist."

* * *

Ed held his eyes open wide as he was passing through the gate. He could see everything and feel everything that had happened to the other side. He could see the cries of the poor and feel the tears of the condemned as they took their last shaky breath. He could hear the laughter of the rich as they slaughtered for sport and he could feel the water that they used to wash off the blood. He could see men being killed by assassins and could feel calmness as they cut down their opponents.

Ed started screaming as he felt, smelt, and heard more and more until he was dropped onto the hard ground. He stared at the sky, panting. He tried to reorganise himself and separated his memories from the memories he had seen. Once he had a clear head, he sat up and looked around him. He was in a clearing surrounded by trees of different shapes and sizes. There was a path in between two trees that seemed to be marked with arrows pointing in the direction of the path. The air was fresh but a little cold from the lack of sun. He grabbed the duffel bag and started on the path.

He had been walking on the small dirt path for about an hour and he still hadn't seen where it led to. Ed steeled himself and continued walking. Another hour later, he heard small voices coming from where the path led. He quickened his pace and the trees started to get scarcer as the path got wider. He could finally hear the people speaking clearly to one another and rushing around the small clearing that seemed to be the town square. Ed suddenly got nervous as he became conscious of what he looked like. The cuts and bruises from his fight with father were gone and he was wearing a newer version of his tank top and leather pants. He had a little bit of dirt on him, probably from when he woke up on the ground, but his concern was somewhere else entirely. His automail wasn't hidden at all by his tank top and was gleaming in the sun light. He wasn't sure if the people there would be so accepting of him with his automail. He decided to cover it up by transmuting gloves and long sleeves for himself with the long grass that surrounded the area. The light of the transmutation shone brightly and he could hear the crackle of the electricity as he touched the grass.

He was glad that he still had his alchemy and hadn't tried it when he first 'landed' because of the fear he had that it wouldn't work. Even though Truth hadn't taken his gate away he had still been scared of what had happened after he had left. He knew that having his alchemy made everything much easier as he already knew how to use it efficiently. HE heard more shouting from the village and checked himself over again. Finally deciding he looked presentable he entered the village.

The houses were pretty old and seemed to blend in with the worn out people who hurried from place to place occasionally resting but mostly working. Ed walked through and barely managed to dodge a young boy in his early teens. He had blonde hair but that's all Ed saw until he turned around to apologise.

"Al?" Ed whispered. The boy cocked his head to the side.

"Hmm?" The boy said in a questioning tone. Ed did a double take and realised that the boy barely looked like Al. The only similarity was the hair colour and how tall Ed would've thought Al would be.

"I know someone who looks similar to you, thought you were him for a second," Ed said rubbing the back of his head. There was an awkward silence as the boy stared at Ed.

"Oh, well, my name's Finn…" Finn paused expecting something in return.

Ed caught on after a second and replied quickly, "It's Ed." Finn nodded.

"I actually have to go but it was nice to meet you!" Finn said as he started off towards an unknown building. Ed quickly realised that Finn was possibly going back to his job or otherwise he probably wouldn't be rushing. Ed quickly decided that he needed a favour from Finn.

"Wait!" Ed yelled as he grabbed Finn's shirt and pulled him back.

"Yes?"

"By any chance do you have a job that I could do?" Ed blurted out.

Finn thought for a second before turning back to Ed and replying. "I'll have to ask Mr. Lee but I'm sure we can find something." Ed gestured for Finn to lead the way. While he followed Finn to whoever Mr Lee was he studied the town and tried to remember which way they had gone for future reference.

Ed was led to what looked like a bar that doubled as an inn with not a person in sight except for the man at the counter cleaning the glasses. Finn waved at him and the man nodded back. The man looked like he had been through a lot. He had brown hair and a stubble on his chin. He was also wearing an eyepatch over his left eye and you could see the end of a scar from under the patch.

"Hi Mr. Lee, how are you?" asked Finn politely as if it was his nature to do so.

Mr. Lee shook his head with a sigh. "I told you so many times that you can call me Seiji," Mr. Lee or Seiji told Finn before looking over at Ed.

"Who's this?" Seiji asked.

"His name is Ed," Finn said quickly.

Ed smiled at Finn before telling them both his full name, "It's Edward, Edward Fullmetal Elric." He put his left hand forward and Seiji took it. They shook hands and stopped before it got too awkward. Seiji found it a little weird that he would put his left hand forward but didn't question it and Ed was happy that he didn't.

"So why are you here, Elric?" Seiji asked.

"I actually prefer it if you called me Ed," he said before replying to the original question, "I was just travelling when I got lost and I also ran out of money so I was hoping you had a job for me." He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. He _was_ travelling to find the stone and he _didn't_ have any money so it was pretty close to the truth.

"Well then, Ed, are you good at fixing things especially tables and chairs?" Seiji asked. Ed nodded at an incredible speed. _This is going to be a piece of cake,_ Ed thought. "Good, you can start today. I'll give you three silver coins for each chair or table fixed." Ed didn't know if that was a lot or not but hoped that it was before Al butted in.

"You can't just give him so little! You can't even buy bread with that much. At least give him ten." Finn reasoned with Seiji.

"How much does bread cost?" Ed asked, he didn't really need to know since he could transmute bread out of grass but actual bread tasted like a feast compared to it.

"Bread costs about ten gold coins. Which is the same as fifty silver." Finn said as if he was educating a child. Ed didn't mind as he had just about the same amount of knowledge of this world as a child. Except for the suffering of course but he didn't know the traditions well enough or how the currency worked to walk around without help.

Seiji sighed and nodded, "I guess it was a bit too low but I guess ten isn't bad for me either," Seiji smiled at Ed and looked him in the eye as if assessing his strength and ability. He nodded and said, "Welcome to Bar Central, Ed, you can start on the pile over there." Seiji pointed at a bunch of broken tables and chairs in two separate piles.

Ed picked up some parts of a chair and took it outside through the back door he spotted near the piles. "I'll be back!" Ed said and in less than a second was back to collect more chair parts. He wasn't going to transmute the tables outside as the door was obviously too small to get a table through it so he planned on fixing them at night.

"I should leave, I still have work to do," said Finn as he was about to leave.

Ed immediately went over to Finn. "Thanks a lot, Finn," he said then waved at him. _I might as well be polite to him for what he's done_ , Ed thought before going back to collect more parts. Finn smiled at Ed then waved goodbye to Seiji and left to wherever he had to go.

Seiji watched Ed as he came back in again and collected more parts then left. This time, when he came back he had a chair in his hand which he placed down near the tables that were not broken. Seiji stared at Ed until the boy realised that he was being watched closely and turned around.

"What did I do?" asked Ed trying to be polite to his first somewhat serious boss who seemed to be nicer than his old one and hadn't mock him at all yet.

"How did you fix it so quickly and without any tools?" Ed was to just about to say something when Seiji cut him off, "Your bag is over there and you didn't have anything in your hand when you went to fix it," Seiji said destroying any alibi Ed might have had. Ed cursed under his breath at Seiji before taking a few seconds to come up with a reason before giving up. _I'll just have to go get it over and done with_ , Ed sighed. He hadn't thought that his secret would be found out so soon.

"I'm an Alchemist," Ed stated, hoping that Seiji knew what it was.

Seiji scoffed. "Are you telling me that you're trying to create gold?" He said mockingly.

Ed knew this was going to be a long explanation but he also knew had to do it. "Alchemists are people who can use an alchemic circle to deconstruct then reconstruct but to be able to do that you have to understand the molecular makeup and properties of the structure you are using. Only after understanding it can you transmute it to something else, but you cannot make gold out of air as the chemical equation needs to be balanced in order for it to work. Otherwise there will be a rebound and depending on how unbalanced the equation is the rebound will be equivalent. That is the rule of equivalent exchange," Ed said before looking to see Seiji's reaction. His face was blank as if pretending to listen but not really caring. Ed sighed and asked, "Am I boring you? Because if I am I can just show you what I mean."

Seiji blinked at him twice and Ed took that as a yes. He made room on the counter and clapped his hands. Then he placed his hands on the counter and created a small chair about the size of his hand and gave it to Seiji. Seiji couldn't care less about the miniature chair in Ed's hand but looked down at his counter to see that it had a small dent also about the size of someone's hand.

"You can put the chair back to where it came from right?" Seiji asked in a demanding voice. The area they were in hadn't been getting many tourists or visitors lately so right now he was quite poor and didn't have enough money to replace the counter. Ed nodded and put the chair on the dent and did another transmutation to put it back in the counter. Seiji looked thoughtfully at the counter before seeing something shiny from the corner of his eye.

"Hand it over," said Seiji with his hand outstretched.

"Hand what over?" Ed asked cautiously.

"The watch in your pocket. I'm going to keep it so that you don't blow up my bar and since it looks expensive I'm sure you wouldn't want it to be sold off." Ed glared at Seiji. He wasn't going to give up his watch that easily.

"Or what?" Ed asked.

Seiji smirked. "I'll tell the whole village that you attacked me and kick you out so you can't get a different job." Ed continued to glare at Seiji before giving in. This was probably the easiest job he was going to get and Seiji hadn't questioned him too much and seemed to be pretty accepting of him. He also hadn't commented on Ed's height so it was a huge plus.

He unclipped the watch from his belt loop and gave it to Seiji. The familiar weight of the watch disappearing from his pocket. Ed smirked at Seiji, "It's not like not having the watch won't let me from doing Alchemy," Ed said confidently as he clapped his hands and placed it on the bench again. Nothing. "Whaaaaaaat?!" Ed yelled and tried again and again and again. Still nothing. This time he calmed down and patiently drew a transmutation circle after asking Seiji for something to write with. He slowly placed his hands again and this time he created a life sized duck. Ed sighed with relief. _At least I can still perform Alchemy_ , Ed thought before returning the counter to what it looked like before hand.

"Can I have it back?" Ed said. Seiji smirked and shook his head.

"I'm sorry, _Fullmetal_ , but I'll be keeping this to hold over you," Seiji said as he watched Ed start boiling with rage. "Do you know what this is?" Seiji asked, as Ed hadn't seemed to know what it could do before he realised. Ed shook his head. "I'll tell you later but for now you can go finish up with what you were doing. And no you can't have the watch back. Just draw the circle," Seiji finished and went back to cleaning. Ed grumbled something about a bastard colonel being related to someone but Seiji paid no mind to it.

Once Ed was outside to where the broken chairs were he picked up a stick and started drawing the circle. Once the circle was finished he got back to work hauling broken chairs and fixed chairs back and forth. The rest of his day went let him stay upstairs since he had an empty room but told him that the food wasn't free and that if someone wanted his room he would have to leave it immediately in pristine condition. Ed agreed as it was better than the streets and stayed.

* * *

Ed had prepared a bag full of equipment that he would need on his way to the Capital. The village had accepted him as their own after he was found to be able to mysteriously fix things to a pristine condition, which no one had asked about. By that time it had been two months since he mysteriously appeared. The village had been saved from starvation for now as Ed had mysteriously found lots of bread from what he said was a neighbouring village. But what he couldn't do anything about was the amount of money they needed to pay the taxes that raised every so often and for some, it had started to become a major problem. He had been training for several weeks as preparation for what he would face in the capital and believed that he was ready. He was more than confident about his abilities and was sure he could and would make enough money for the village but he had to hurry if he wanted to save it in time. He said his goodbyes to the few people he knew well that were sending him off. There weren't too many people, just the baker which he had become very good friends with, Seiji and his wife, and Finn. He was just about to leave when he noticed a tapping on his shoulder.

"Ed, you might need this," Seiji said as he handed him a silver watch with intricate designs on etched onto it. Ed stared at the watch. He had not seen it often but he knew that Seiji always kept it in his pocket. He never let anyone touch it and Seiji knew that it was something important from Ed's past. "This watch amplifies the wearer's alchemic abilities and knowing how much trouble a midget like you can get into, you might need it more than you think." Ed was about to start yelling when Seiji interrupted him, clearly not finished with what he was saying. "One last thing, this is one of the imperial relics I told you about so if this gets destroyed you'll be wishing you were a lot smaller." Ed glared at him, this wasn't the first time Seiji had threatened Ed about his watch but by seeing how important Seiji thought his watch was he knew he had to take good care of it.

"Where's the real Seiji? He wouldn't give my watch back to me," said Ed distrustfully. Finn sighed and tried to hide his smile as Seiji became irritated with the boy who would 'save the village'.

"I'll have it back if you don't think that I'm the real Seiji, Ed," He said. Ed shook his head and smiled a bit.

"Thank you, Seiji," Ed said as he saluted Seiji clumsily. Seiji was shocked at the change of demeanor in the boy in front of him but didn't lose his composure. He had a reputation to keep.

"Off you go before I change my mind about letting you go," Seiji said at last nodding to him as he left. Ed turned and began his treacherous journey to the Capital.

* * *

 **I hope you enjoyed it! If you liked it and would like an update somewhat soon please review! and don't worry the wait shouldn't be too long as I now have a tiny bit of inspiration, holidays in 2 days and a nice, new, smooth keyboard to type with. (and half of the second chapter done)**


	2. Monsters?

**Hi. I'm still here and steadily writing short but, hopefully, good chapters. I enjoyed writing this quite a bit so I hope you guys enjoy reading it! Other then that, don't expect me to update very often as I tend to lack motivation most times but holidays are the times when I write out of boredom and edit. I should add in that I'm really sorry if you were looking forward to it being updated often but this is the best I can do as who I am.**

 **IMPORTANT NOTES: Drunk people, Ed yelling, and I don't own Akame ga kill and Fullmetal Alchemist.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

On the way to the capital, Ed had accidentally gotten lost and had ended up on a different route to the one he had planned before he left. He was glad that he had decided to memorise any other roads near the route he was on just incase he had gotten lost. He was lucky that whichever way he went he would either end up in the capital or a nearby village or town so the most it could cost him were a couple of days at max.

He dismissed the thoughts of taking longer than planned as he hadn't thought to bring more than what was needed for the trip. He knew Seiji was going to shove it in his face when he returned because he had insisted that he should bring extra food and water incase he got lost but he trusted his ability to find a way out of any situation. He focused back on his surroundings to check if there was anyone in the distance that he might be able to get help from when he started imagining the kind of transportation people would use to get to the Capital. He thought more along the lines of posh carriages or maybe just a cart when he was brought back to reality by a roar.

The roar had come from an Earth Dragon which was a first-class Danger Beast. The Danger Beast raised its claw and brought it down towards the people in the horse drawn wagon. They screamed in fear of the dragon while Ed's mind raced with ways to save them. _Shit! I won't make it in time!_ Ed thought and clapped his hands, the electricity dancing between his fingers before dying down to nothing when he slammed them to the ground. As he did, a dirt hand rose out of the ground in front of the wagon to stop the beast's attack. The beast never had the chance to hit the dirt hand as it's whole arm had been sliced off not a second later. Undeterred by the loss of an arm it roared again and raised its other hand at the attacker. Whoever had sliced it's arm off was on the other side of the beast so Ed couldn't see who it was clearly. Dust rose into the air as the beast took a swipe at the ground where Ed assumed the attacker had been and hopefully wasn't anymore.

Ed saw a tiny figure climbing up the beast's arm as the beast roared again. "They're pretty good," Ed said to himself, transmuting his arm into his signature blade, cutting the beast across the back. He looked at the beast as the cut started spurting blood at an alarming rate, but it wasn't first-class for nothing. This time the beast didn't roar but instead turned and charged at Ed with its remaining arm. Ed dodged with ease and watched as a figure jumped up into the air and slashed the beast all over before landing gracefully. The beast fell to the ground in a pool of it's own blood, finally dead.

The men in the wagon ran over to Ed, who was currently transmuting his arm back to normal and hiding it in his pocket, and the figure as soon as the beast was slain. "That was amazing! I never expected people like you to be able to take down a Danger Beast!" The man praised.

"What do you mean 'people like you'! Are you calling me a child the size of an electron that even if the Danger Beast tried to hit me it wouldn't be able to because of how miniscule I am!?" Ed yelled, trying and failing to contain his anger. At least he didn't attack the man. The figure next to him, now known to be a young man in his teens, tried not to laugh but failed miserably and had to hold his knees for support.

When the boy managed to stand up without support he put gave his input of the situation. "It _was_ to be expected of us!" He said wrapping his arm around Ed's shoulder and pulled him in close. Ed wriggled out of his grip then glared at the boy.

The men awkwardly laughed to somewhat ease the atmosphere. "If we're heading in the same direction we can give you a ride but we don't have much money so that's all we can offer," said one of the men. Ed and the boy nodded and asked where they were going. "The Capital," The man replied shortly.

"I'm going to the Capital as well so I might just take you up on your offer," Ed said and was led to the wagon. There, he was shown a spot where he could comfortably sit for the rest of the journey. He got comfortable but not before he thanked the men and made sure that his gratitude was shown. It wasn't because he was too tired to continue walking after he had fought the beast but more because this would be a lot faster.

"Is it alright if I come along too?" asked the boy. The men nodded and smiled at him encouragingly. The boy almost literally jumped into the wagon and sat next to Ed.

Not even five minutes after the wagon began moving, Ed had already became very bored. He looked over to the boy. He had light brown hair with an antenna that wasn't sticking towards the sky but towards the side and downwards as if sad. He had a bright eyes and smile which showed that he hadn't faced much in his life. Let alone bad things. _The worst was probably his training_ , Ed thought and went back to staring outside at the passing scenery.

Soon after doing nothing but sitting and staring he got bored again. Ed turned to the men sitting and started some small talk to get rid of his boredom and hopefully gain knowledge about what the capital was like.

"Why are you two going to the Capital?" he asked nonchalantly.

One of them turned behind and answered him. "We're getting supplies for our village. The harvest wasn't enough this time and we also need some new equipment." He eyed Ed for a minute before returning the question. "Why are you going to the there?"

Ed replied with ease, "My village is poor and we need money to pay our taxes so I was going to the capital when I got lost and ended up on the wrong route. I'm planning on becoming rich and famous, which I don't think I'll have trouble with, then send money to my village!" He finished with false excitement. The men shook their heads at his big dreams. Big dreams like that ended up nowhere.

The other man spoke up this time. "The Capital isn't a place for hopes and dreams as you think it is. It's definitely lively but it's home to monsters even worse than the earth dragon."

"Why are there danger beasts in the Capital? Shouldn't it be a lot safer there?" said the boy in confusion. Ed knew what the man meant after years of working in the military.

"I mean the people," The man said clarifying what he meant. "They may be human but their hearts are monstrous. The Capital's crawling with them." The boy nodded in response and sat back in the wagon. _I wonder if the kid will be okay if the Capital is like what the man said_ , Ed thought before going back to staring at the changing scenery.

* * *

Ed and Tatsumi stepped out of the wagon and they thanked the men. One of them told them that if he went straight ahead they would be close to the barracks. Ed thanked them again and briskly walked in the direction of the barracks with Tatsumi trailing behind him. At the barracks, there was a long line of about twenty people but he waited in line to prove that he wasn't some no good hick from the country. Tatsumi went straight to the front and demanded that he gets ranked up immediately before Ed went to stop him. In the process of stopping Tatsumi, Ed had been called a short girl and hadn't wasted a second in punching the man. It was no surprise that they were kicked out as quickly as they had been.

"Why did you have to punch him! He was definitely going to promote me right away!" grumbled Tatsumi.

"You wish," Ed replied before they decided that it was time to eat something and went to the nearest bar. Ed and Tatsumi had become friends after the boring wagon ride that they both endured. Ed had learnt that Tatsumi and him had very similar reasons about going to the Capital. He also heard the story from Tatsumi about how he and his friends, Ieyasu and Sayo, had been attacked by bandits and were separated on the way to the capital and about how hard they had all trained for their journey. Ed hoped that Tatsumi was able to find them quickly before anything happened to either of them. Ed also hoped for himself that he'd be able to return to his world and Al soon.

They sat down and had a look through the menu when a girl plopped herself down next to Ed. She was a bit too old to be called a girl and was more of a woman at this point. The woman smiled widely and crossed her arms. She had long blond hair and golden eyes a little brighter than Ed's. She wasn't wearing much other than a tube top that he had seen Winry wear for days on end and pants that didn't leave much for the imagination. Tatsumi was having a hard time concentrating on anything but her boobs and looked at Ed for help. He shrugged in response as _they_ were having little to no effect on Ed. Years of living and being taught under Izumi seemed to have this effect on people.

"So what are you country hicks doing here?" She asked nonchalantly.

Ed didn't reply and didn't have a chance to when Tatsumi replied immediately, "How did you know we were country hicks?" He was so loud that Ed could've sworn he lost some of his hearing. The girl chuckled and stole Tatsumi's drink. She chugged it in one go and looked into Ed's eyes, weighing him up. He didn't say anything and quietly sipped at his drink. She slammed her drink on to the table with a satisfied sound.

"It's easy to tell who's what after you've lived here for a while," She said, "Are you two going to answer my original question or not?" Ed put his glass down and nodded to Tatsumi to go first. While Tatsumi explained, Ed stood up and went over to the bar to order some snacks for his table. He returned quickly with pizza and chips and placed them on the table.

"...Then Ed and I got kicked out of the barracks and ended up here," Tatsumi said as he finished his story. The woman whistled, as if impressed.

"Sounds like you two are quite the adventurers," She said. Ed smiled at her and started on the pizza while Tatsumi was positively beaming because of the complement. She smile softly towards Tatsumi and became serious. "To get to the top you need two things," She held up two fingers, "money and connections." Tatsumi listened intently while Ed silently devoured the pizza and chips already knowing the information she presented.

Tatsumi struggled with his bag a little before pulling out a small bag of coins. "Is this enough?" he asked unsure. Her smile widened and nodded quickly.

"I'll take this and have a talk with them to get you two up there," She said grabbing the bag and was about to get up when Ed clasped a hand around her shoulder.

"Since you'll be talking to them and rising us up the ranks, why don't we have a celebration for our new found friend?" Ed asked mischievously. She sat back down and dumped the bag of coins on the table. She looked over at Ed with a curious look. He could tell whatever he was about to suggest she would do it with no hesitation.

"Let's celebrate!" said Tatsumi with enthusiasm. He seemed to be hyped about what was about to happen.

Ed smirked and turned to the woman. "How about we have a drinking contest between you and I," he said with a confident smile.

She grinned back at him and answered wholeheartedly, "You're on." Ed wasn't completely sure if he was going to win or not but he couldn't really care. All he needed to do was get her drunk. Not for _those_ reasons but to ask her what she was _actually_ going to do with the money and to prove to Tatsumi that he shouldn't be so trusting of everyone around him.

Ed called the bartender over and ordered a few drinks and convinced Tatsumi that they needed someone to count so he shouldn't drink with them. Tatsumi disagreed at first but went along anyway, probably too excited to see who was better. Tatsumi poured their first two drinks and did the countdown for them.

"3… 2… 1… Drink!" Ed and the woman took a shot. They both looked at each other defiantly smirked at each other before turning to Tatsumi who was starting to become spooked at this point. Tatsumi poured them their next shots and did the countdown again and again and again.

By the twelfth shot, the woman had started to sway a little and had a wide smile on her face. Ed, on the other hand, had been staring at Tatsumi without any knowledge of how uncomfortable he was making him. Their faces were completely red with the effects of the alcohol. The woman sloppily pushed her drink towards Tatsumi again and demanded another round. Ed was slightly better job; he slowly passed it to Tatsumi in a straight line - off the table.

The glass shattered against the floor and the bartender glared at them from where he was. The people in the bar didn't even pause, seemingly used to the sound of breaking glass. Tatsumi panicked and bowed his head to the bartender while Ed laughed.

"Why are youuuu apologising? We cannn fix it quickly," Ed said slurring out his words. He leaned over to the ground, clapped and touched the glass. The alchemy crackled in his hands until the glass started to come together into a perfectly repaired cup with grotesquely formed wings. Ed smiled proudly at his newly made glass. He put the glass to his lips and tipped his head back expecting alcohol to empty into his mouth. Instead, he made a strange slurping noise with the glass.

Tatsumi didn't ask why Ed thought there would be alcohol in it but decided to ask him about how he repaired the glass to perfection and also why he decided to add freakish wings to it. Tatsumi personally didn't like stealing things but he knew that if he didn't have proof of what Ed had done he wouldn't get answers and slipped the glass with wings into his backpack. He poured more alcohol into his own glass and the woman's before handing it back pretending that it was Ed's not his. Ed didn't notice and Tatsumi counted down again to make it to the thirteenth shot for both of them.

This time Ed turned to the woman and said, "Weren't you gonna steal his monay earlier?" The woman looked at Ed with a smile that said he was right.

"Yesss and it was going to be sooooo easy." Tatsumi was shocked and was showing it clearly when the woman started laughing at him, "Country hicks are always the bessst!" She laughed a little more before getting up and stumbling out of the bar. Ed and Tatsumi could still hear little bursts of laughter coming from outside.

Ed went back to staring at Tatsumi before he said, "Am I makinng you uncomfortable?" Tatsumi nodded quickly and Ed mirrored his nodding and kept nodding even after Tatsumi had stopped. Ed slowed down thankfully which kept Tatsumi from bursting out laughing. He didn't want to have the potential of pissing off Ed and changed the subject.

"How did you know she was lying? She didn't seem like it," said Tatsumi curious about Ed's answer. Ed stared at Tatsumi quizzically before a metaphorical light bulb went off in his head.

"My boss in the military was an asshole and loooooved to send me and my brother on wild gooose chases around and around and people like to scam others for money and you're a country hick and everyone loves scammming country hicks," Ed slurred. Tatsumi was tempted to ask about who this military officer was when Ed answered it for him. "He was an asshole and assholes like screwing with little kids who donnn't know what they're doing and, and, and, that asshole was named ass-Roy-hole. A Roy boy toy the size of an ass," Ed finished resting his head on his hand.

Tatsumi didn't say anything and watched as Ed stared at the glass in front of him. Tatsumi wasn't sure if Ed was anywhere near sober at this point but couldn't do anything and just hoped that he would be more 'awake' the next morning. Ed finally opened his mouth but then closed it. He opened and closed his mouth again before frowning.

"Can you puths me de gl-" Ed slurred as he swung his arm towards the glass. His head, now rid of all support, slammed into the table in front of him with the grace of a whale in the sahara desert.

* * *

 **How was it? Were there any mistakes that should be fixed? Any way I can improve? Let me know in the comments!**

 **(please let me know if there are any mistakes cause I tend to not notice and end up crying myself to sleep when I notice a mistake I haven't fixed in 6 months)**


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